Blog

Thursday, 4 September 2008

Having finished University 2 months ago. I have dealt with a number of potential and current clients, but have learned a number of techniques to manage and engage with them effectively and efficiently.

Before meeting a client to design or implement a website it is essential to gather as much information as possible about the organisation. I normally look at the following things:

What do they do?

How big are they?

What kind of web system do they have at the moment?

Can it be improved?

Look at source code for SEO techniqes and possible errors

Research their competitors to ensure that you know the processes of both customer and client

Look at SWOT / PESTLE analysis to further their growth/development (these look really good to clients)

Analyze all the information from above and report it (whilst trying to be graphic e.g. notes all over website)

Start building mock-ups (usually in photoshop).

As shown in the map below:

You should now have everything you need to take to a meeting, but again presentation is everything. Make sure you take everything with you to the presentation e.g. previous work and their report.

In the first meeting try to understand exactly what the client wants, if you don't know anything its better to ask/speak up now rather than regret it further down the line.

Give them a Business Card

It looks professional

Its free PR if you do a good job (e.g. it gets passed on)

They have all the information their to contact you

If your quote matches their needs and you are hired its likely the client will want a full scope of the design you are going to do and a cost breakdown if necessary. A quick google or excel spreadsheet should do the job, e.g. charged hours = 400 x £5.50 etc. overtime = 0.

Although I'm not a fan of information overload, I also recognise that if the client has all the information and they sign off on it then its likely to decrease the chance of any conflicts that could occur later down the line.

Whilst working with clients it is important to try to do the following things:

Firstly emphathising with the client really helps. Before any pre consultancy work I always try to find out as much as I can about the company to ensure that they realise how much I want their business. Empathising with clients can be really hard (e.g. if they don't understand the web at all), yet it has major rewards. Laying down a companies "Internet Website" could just be the start.

Secondly empowering clients is essential e.g. making them feel confident about what they are doing. This is essential to understand the benefit of the work being carried out. Empowering clients has two rewards firstly its likely to reflect positively on work carried out and secondly it is likely to make the organisation look at things differently. For example if I designed a website for a local building company, the building company have done a lot of work but don't necessarily have a portfolio, but could easily upload items via a Content Management System, this is likely to empower them and give them confidence in their own work. Being supportive of any changes or new developments but frankly be honest with clients as they'll be expecting what they paid for.

Trust and honesty are vital with clients. Being coherent is an essential and invaluable skill if a client expects something by a certain time and you don't fulfill it then it reflect badly on you. It is sometimes necessary to be honest with the client and state that a job is going to be late rather than rushed unnecessarily. Using collaboration software such as Basecamp has huge advantages or even using Twitter to update clients on a particular project e.g. Completed Building Pages.... GPJONES. Communicating with them frequently or as they require once the project has been planned arrange meetings once various milestones have been met to do a KT (Knowledge Transfer) if necessary or further develop.

I can't focus enough how much being yourself is important and not overselling abilities e.g. I can create you a search engine like google, is not believable and when your trying to gain trust, honesty and empathy it will not please the client if they can't get what you have promised to deliver.

In Summary

Project management is all about the client and in development. Learning new media and develop your own skills. I tend to find that getting stuck on a particular part of the development stage then executing it to satisfy a client can be extremely rewarding and satisfying.